In typical medical care situations, monitors are connected to devices that receive physiological data from patients. Such devices may be passive monitoring devices or active delivery devices. Active delivery devices, for example, may provide stimulus (e.g., cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) machines), drugs, and/or oxygen.
In such situations, the monitors of such devices provide critical patient information to the caregivers, such as health care providers or medical professionals (e.g., medical doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, etc.). In many cases, the monitors are connected to the devices as an integrated package. Oftentimes, the monitors are not readily visible to the caregivers, particularly if the caregivers are away from the patient and the devices.
Although caregivers are away from the monitors and devices, the need to be aware of a patient's condition(s) continues. In certain cases, a medical professional may not be able to view a monitor and be aware of the patient's condition(s). Examples of such situations, include instances when the caregiver has to walk away to check on another patient or attend to another task. In certain cases, a caregiver is physically unable to view a monitor. An example includes a medical evacuation situation in a helicopter when a technician and patient are physically situated such that the technician is unable to view the monitor of the device. Furthermore, in such medical evacuation situations, the environment may not be ideal (e.g., noisy, dimly lit, etc.) to properly view the monitor.
In certain situations, a monitor not only provides status of physiological data and of the connected device, but may also provide alerts as to critical levels of a patient. For example, a blood pressure device may alert the medical professional as to a critically low blood pressure level and/or irregular heartbeat. In the case of an oxygen sensing device, a monitor may alert the professional as to low levels of oxygen to the patient. Such alerts may be triggered by abnormalities/conditions experienced by the patient and/or problems/malfunctions of the device.
If a caregiver is away from a monitor, the patient's care may be compromised because the caregiver cannot properly view the condition of the patient or be aware of alerts provided by the device through the monitor.